Kovacevic: It'd be easier to grasp Penguins' woes if Jarry wasn't awful

Every solitary soul knew. 

All 16,903 of the paying citizens inside PPG Paints Arena on this Monday night, plus all of the participants, the four on-ice officials, the front-office types, the police and other emergency employees, the fry-cooks and club concierges, all of us up in the press box, probably even Sax Man out on Centre Avenue ... everyone knew.

Everyone knew this'd be a goal:

And that, unto itself, is insane.

And that's also very, very much the principal problem that these Penguins are now facing at 3-6, rock bottom of the Eastern Conference, though far from the only one following a 4-3 flop against the Ducks, one that saw, almost surreally, Mason McTavish smash the above shorty with 11.9 seconds left in regulation, and one that saw, almost surreally, a full-two-minute, five-on-three power play immediately prior to that in which the home team produced nothing more than a predictable pattern of perimeter passes that ... well, everyone knew.

Because it's one thing for the power play to over-pass on a night in which it also popped two goals. It's another thing for the offense to once again, in general, a gazillion shots in vain. Since both of those, over time, will find a healthy hockey equilibrium. They will.

But it's quite another to expect ... something, anything from the anointed starting goaltender.

Let's be blunt: Tristan Jarry's been bad.

The NHL's teams employ exactly 32 starting goaltenders, and he currently ranks 47th in the league with an .893 save percentage through seven starts. And on high-danger chances alone, those situations where the proverbial big stop's a requirement, he ranks 26th with a .792 save percentage. This despite two of his starts being shutouts, both of which saw the skaters performing optimally. And this despite, from my perspective, anyway, an inspired group of penalty-killers in front of him.

That's bad.

That's also why Mike Sullivan, who's typically expansive in his responses at press conferences, had only this to offer when asked after this game to assess Jarry's season to date: "I think Tristan's been like our whole team. We've had moments where we've been really good, and we've had moments where we haven't been."

Ouch. Trust me, in the hockey culture, that's the equivalent of calling him out. Especially the brevity.

The coach went easy. I operate with no such restriction.

This could've been a save:

Sure, Frank Vatrano's been scoring against Pittsburgh in his sleep for years now. That's short-side. Unscreened. Didn't even pinpoint the top corner.

This could've been a save, or just a stoppage:

The third defense pairing of Ryan Shea and Chad Ruhwedel sputtered there, but Jakob Silfverberg winds up wholly behind Jarry because he ... he ... I've no idea what he's doing way out there.

Not pictured: The Ducks scored a third goal near the end of the second period that was curiously reversed in Toronto for goaltender interference -- Anaheim's coach, Greg Cronin, would get tossed for arguing it -- and that, too, was an easy-breezy short-sider, this time over the glove.

Could've been a save.

This, too:

Bryan Rust tries to chip ahead to Sidney Crosby and, in an unfortunate bounce for a line that'd owned the ice all night, it fell right to Anaheim's Ryan Strome, who fed low to McTavish for a deposit so routine he might as well have been using a MAC machine.

This was right after a riveting rally in which Evgeni Malkin tied on a power-play wrister, then Radim Zohorna rammed home his reward for the third line's game-long diligence. Like, less than two minutes later.

Make a bleeping save.

And yeah, this, too, viewed from another angle:

There's another failure at hand here, too, of course, in that predictable passing I referenced: Erik Karlsson had set up Geno for that same center-point shot several times on that power play, including twice in a row here. So the veteran Adam Henrique hardly needed to overthink which lane to take out to steal the second, then spring McTavish.

But ... it could've been a save. Laser in on McTavish's finish. He's not really shooting as much as he's scooping. He saw that much net and, clearly, he felt he could simply place the puck where it needed to go.

McTavish would call himself "lucky" regarding the shot, but that's the kind of attempt one takes in peewees against the new kid in net.

Four goals on 27 shots, and a fifth, theoretically, if the replay hadn't reversed another.

Meanwhile, the skaters in front of Jarry generated -- sit down for this -- 97 shot attempts to Anaheim's 50, in addition to the 42-27 run-up in registered shots. Those aren't fancy stats, and it isn't any sort of spin to suggest that's outright dominance. Beyond that, really.

But it's all bunk without the guy in the back. 

And, with at least this much to his credit, he'd readily acknowledge that afterward, saying, "Obviously, I need to be better. and I think that’s the bottom line. The guys need a save there at the end, or one of the other ones. I don’t think I’ve been giving the guys enough of a chance to win every night."

He's right.

Of staying in the blue paint on McTavish's breakaway, he'd say, "I gotta get out and make a save. That’s the bottom line. I think that’s the biggest thing, just to force it into overtime and get a point. And I think we’d come out on top.”

He's right about the approach. Way too passive.

Of what he needs to do get right, he'd say, "I think I just gotta keep working. I think I gotta keep working hard. Obviously, hard work brings you out a lot of things. So that’s just what I’m gonna keep doing.”

For these Penguins' sake, he'd better. Heck, for the future of the franchise, he'd better.

Bear in mind that, for all Kyle Dubas' many perceived miracles this past summer, all he did to address the sport's most important position was to go status quo at starter, then add two backups from a bad Detroit team. Which, to be blunt on this broader issue, was a blight on his time in Toronto, too, with misfires and money misspent all over the place that'd eventually cost the Maple Leafs in the few games they'd play that mattered.

I don't have a solution here. Jarry's now due, thanks to Dubas, a guaranteed $26.875 million over this season and the next four. It's not like he can be benched or banished. It's not like he can be casually replaced with no cap space. And most painful of all, it's not like Sid, Geno and crew can keep whipping up 95 shot attempts a night into eternity waiting to see if the goaltending situation can become something other than a half-decade quagmire.

There's a big break at hand between now and the next game Saturday night against the Sharks, one of the NHL's three teams with a worse record, in San Jose, Calif. And in that time, there'll be all kinds of criticism point in all kinds of directions. Some of it internal, as Geno'd blurt out a bit after this game. Which is fine. That's as it should be. This roster's not built to win in any time that isn't the present, fair or not, so that's the standard at hand.

In the interim, imagine the difference a single save could make.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE THREE STARS

As selected at PPG Paints Arena:

1. Mason McTavish, Ducks C
2. Lukas Dostal, Ducks G
3. Evgeni Malkin, Penguins C

THE INJURIES

• G Alex Nedeljkovic (lower body) is on long-term injured reserve.

• D John Ludvig (concussion) has yet to resume skating.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Reilly Smith-Evgeni Malkin-Rickard Rakell
Drew O'Connor-Lars Eller-Radim Zohorna
Matt Nieto-Noel Acciari-Jeff Carter

Ryan Graves-Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson-Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea-Chad Ruhwedel

And for Greg Cronin's Ducks:

Trevor Zegras-Leo Carlsson-Troy Terry
Frank Vatrano-Mason McTavish-Ryan Strome
Max Jones-Adam Henrique-Jakob Silfverberg
Ross Johnson-Sam Carrick-Brett Leason

Cam Fowler-Jackson LaCombe
Pavel Mintyukov-Ilya Lyubushkin
Urho Vaakanainen-Radko Gudas

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE SCHEDULE

The Penguins will practice Tuesday, 12 p.m., at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry. I'll cover it. The next game's Saturday night in San Jose, part of a three-game California swing.

THE CONTENT

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